It applies more particularly but not exclusively to civil and commercial aviation where current navigation techniques make use of printed aeronavigation maps indicating the airports, the air routes, radionavigation markers, as well as information not specific to air navigation. These maps have many drawbacks:
they are too big to be easily handled in the small space of a pilot's cockpit; PA1 They do not provide instant access to the map portion where the aircraft is located. PA1 They do not provide instant access to all the information required for navigation, such as detailed information concerning an airport or a radionavigation marker; PA1 Their scale is either too small to be able to legibly show all the required information or too big to display a sufficiently large portion of the trajectory with respect to the average speed of the aircraft used on regular lines; PA1 the information shown is not completely useful for a given flight, these maps showing all useful information for all possible routes within the displayed geographical zone; PA1 the sets of information displayed are static and cannot be easily updated; and, in particular, no means is provided to indicate the existence of a NOTAM ("Notice to Air Men"), and PA1 searching for them on the map is a difficult task at night. PA1 the real time acquisition of the geographical position of the vehicle; PA1 the introduction of the trajectory to be traversed from the current position of the vehicle as far as the destination position; PA1 the periodical determination of one portion of the digitized image representing one geographical zone which includes both the current position of the vehicle and one significant portion of the trajectory to be traversed; PA1 the displaying on the display surface of the specific image portion and of symbols representing said trajectory portion; PA1 the real time overprinted displaying on said display surface of a symbol representing the vehicle by observing its geographical position with respect to said geographical zone; PA1 the selection by the operator of at least one set of objects; PA1 the selection by the system from amongst the sets of information relating to the selected set of objects of any information relating to objects localized in said geographical zone; PA1 the overprinted displaying on said image portion of symbols representing the objects thus selected by observing the geographical position with respect to said geographical zone; and PA1 the selection by the operator of one of the sets of objects displayed on the display surface and activation of the exploitation means associated with said set of objects. PA1 1) If the NOTAM modifies an indicated element, an icon (or similar) invites to press a key "NOT" which causes the concerned text to appear. PA1 2) It is possible, after having selected a function NOTAM, to cause the "sleeping NOTAMs" (NOTAMs which modifiy information not displayed on the screen) to appear and, by the cursor, it is possible to designate the spots which it is desired to consult. PA1 radio-navigation markers, PA1 particular zones and the delimitations of zones of the same radio frequency, PA1 the air routes, PA1 the high altitude points and in particular those situated at an altitude higher than that of the aerodyne, PA1 the airports, . . . PA1 meteorological data, such as isobar curves according to altitude and the images of bulks of clouds, PA1 the respective positions of other aerodynes flying over the same geographical zone, . . . PA1 the activation of a designation device associated with one of the sets of objects displayed on the display surface and which the operator is able to move on the screen as he pleases, PA1 the designation by the operator with the aid of the designation device of a symbol representing an object and displaying on the full screen or in a window by overprinting on the image displayed of any information relating to the selected object. PA1 the storing of the windows displayed on the screen in a storage zone provided to this effect, and PA1 the displaying overprinted on the image present on the display surface of the contents of this storage zone as and when requested by the pilot. PA1 tools for optimizing the route according to weather conditions, PA1 tools for assisting the decision making it possible to determine the best airport the aerodyne is to be directed to according to any restrictions concerning the weather and fuel and the current position of the aerodyne, and PA1 navigation calculation tools for calculating the distance and the course between two points, for example.